Photo by Eric Moreno, Stadium Journey
My beloved hometown of San Antonio is known the world over as a true food lovers’ paradise. We – and I almost exclusively use “we” when talking about the Alamo City – were the second city in the United States to be recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Creative City of Gastronomy.
If you want it, we’ve got it. The Best Tex-Mex in the state? Yep, that’s ours (come at me everyone else; this is the hill I will die on). Great barbecue? We’ve got that, too. The city is also home to a burgeoning food hall, world-class steakhouses, authentic Asian cuisine, and one of the oldest German restaurants in the country.
We are also home to some truly unique dishes that aren’t found outside of this pocket of the Great State of Texas – in a previous story I unveiled the puffy taco to the wider world. This time around, I will shed light on an even more obscure, equally loved, and sadly vanishing dish: the crispy dog.
The long and short of it is that a crispy dog is a plain hot dog stuffed with American cheese, then wrapped in a corn tortilla and deep fried to a nice golden brown. Served up with your dipping sauce of choice (I prefer straight up mustard, but that’s just me), this dish has always been an inexpensive, deeply satisfying way to fill a belly. Humble yet cherished.
If you find someone who is from San Anto of a certain age, they will probably have a story about a maternal member of their family – their mom, their tía, or their abuela – making this dish for them. If you’ve got that memory deep inside of you, your first bite of a crispy dog is instant nostalgia doused with familial love.
Once upon a time you could find the beloved crispy dog right alongside the puffy tacos, enchiladas, and chalupas, etc. These days, however, you will be hard-pressed to find them on any menu.
However, the OG of crispy dogs is Ray’s Drive Inn. After more than a half century this place is still alive and well, and still serving up the best version of the crispy dog in Texas. Ray’s is also at least an early server of, and at best the originator of, the puffy taco. Restaurant founder Ray Lopez put the crispy dog on the menu beginning in 1956, and it has been a staple ever since.
Ray’s Drive Inn’s crispy dogs come two to an order with the aforementioned side of mustard – the first bite is the best; crispy (naturally), gooey, and savory. It’s a dish that’s truly greater than the sum of its humble parts. My one bit of warning is that these are extremely addicting, so by the time you’re halfway through your second dog, you’re contemplating another order.
While the crispy dog may be vanishing from most restaurants, if you can find a place that still offers them up, you’re in for a treat.
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Follow Eric Moreno's Stadium Journey on Twitter at @EricMoreno6477.
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